Northern Mainers Fed Up With Janet Mills’ Woke Gov’t Threaten To Break Away From the Pine Tree State

A group of renegades from Maine’s upper reaches tired of liberal Gov. Janet Mills (D) are forming their own faction to split from the southern realms of the state and form their own with the name “North Maine.”

But as serious as they seem to be, they’re up against a national history that is not comfortable with secession – even in Maine, the state being one of only three nationwide that declared its own independence in 1820.

Separation from a state is as hard or harder than municipal secession, though the legislative process is similar.

“The people of Aroostook County – and those who share our values – are organizing peacefully and lawfully to establish the Free and Sovereign State of North Maine,” the group announced on Facebook.

“This is not a political stunt,” they insisted. “It’s a grassroots response to decades of cultural, economic, and political disconnect between our region and Augusta.”

Take that, Janet Mills.

The nascent group, which formed April 6 to, as they claim, free residents from “the burdens of excessive taxation and bureaucratic interference,” already has 3,000 followers on Facebook.

To skeptics who wonder how they would pay for services without property and income taxes, the organizers say they would instead rely on “use-based fees and public/private partnerships.”

Serious or not, secession movements have a steep hill to climb, despite Maine’s success breaking away from Massachusetts.

“We are inspired by the same principles that led to Maine’s own statehood in 1820,” the Aroostook group said in its announced formation.

The irony is that, in order to divorce Maine, secessionists would first need the approval of the existing state they’re trying to break away from. They’d also need congressional approval.

Thrice, in 1997, 2005 and 2010, the late state Rep. Henry Joy, R-Crystal, proposed dividing Maine into northern and southern states, but his scheme went nowhere.

Municipal secession is hard enough, let alone state separation.

The Legislature in 2011 rejected Peaks Island’s bid to leave Portland, saying islanders didn’t follow the process spelled out in state law.

An earlier secession attempt by Peaks also failed.

But there have been successful bids by Maine municipal groups frustrated with their alleged lack of representation.

Long Island split from Portland in 1993 when islanders said they were tired of fighting for services.

The summer colony of Frye Island in Sebago Lake seceded from Standish in 1997.

Chebeague Island successfully broke away from Cumberland in 2007.

Taxes are arguably the best way for independents to try to drum up support for anti-government movements.

In terms of property taxes, for instance, Maine is the most expensive state in the country, according to WalletHub, a finance website.

The Pine Tree State ranks fourth-highest among U.S. states with the largest shares of personal income going to the government, the analysis showed.

Using data obtained from the nonpartisan, nonprofit Tax Policy Center, WalletHub compared and ranked the states.

[RELATED: Mainers Bear Fourth Highest Total Tax Burden in America: WalletHub Study]

The study looked at average property tax, income tax, sales tax and excise tax levies as percentages of wages.

Maine’s overall tax burden amounts to 10.74 percent of personal income. That percentage places the state behind New York, which is No. 1 with a tax burden of 12.02 percent; Hawaii, No. 2, 11.8 percent; and Vermont, No. 3, 11.12 percent.

The downside for Republicans is, if Aroostook breaks away from the northern reaches, there go many of the remnants of resistance that keep the Second Congressional District marginally in the red column.

For conservatives, the northern half of Maine has always been a fairly reliable check on the Democrat control anchored in the bottom half.

But it’s been fickle, running both red and blue, depending on the mood of the year.

Democrat U.S. Rep. Jared Golden, (ME-CD2), has so far been able to straddle that demarcation.

Portland, which is Maine’s largest city, has always been a reliable bet for the welfare crowd.

The loss to conservatives of Aroostook County would have broader implications electorally.

Presumably a new small state in the country’s northeast corner would get one electoral vote, though the popular effect on Maine’s apportioned electoral votes isn’t known.

Uncertainty is apparently the least of worries for people looking to strike back at government. It’s the intoxicating feeling of independence that governs such breakaways, no matter how ill-conceived their plan may be.

The visceral appeal of telling Maine’s liberal governor to stick it is enough for someone such as Kathy Bamford Kippen of Harrington to cheer secession forming the 51st state.

“It will be great if it removes a part of Maine from the clutches of Janet Mills and her ideologies,” Kippen said.

Thomas Harrell posted on Facebook that a breakaway state would be fine with him – just as long as it doesn’t “push diversity and homosexuality.”

Yet fellow Facebooker Martin Sanborn called the secession idea “just another ill-thought-out extremist pipe dream.”

“To have no taxes is purely unrealistic, period,” Sanborn added. “Governments rely on taxes to fund fire and rescue services and public works to name a few.”

Still others such as Brenda Stickney of Andover hopes the secession leaders will expand the idea by considering the entire Second District, not just Aroosrook County, as part of a 51st state.

“Even with the very fundamental forms of ‘elected’ government – our selectmen – there exists today a very dangerous abuse of power, the result of constant illegal ‘power grabs’ over an extended period of time,” Stickney said.

Former state Senator Eric Brakey, R-Auburn, said last year that northern Maine should follow his example and actually join New Hampshire – where he recently moved.

Brakey said that if Second District concerns continue to be ignored, “measures once considered inconceivable” would be considered.

It’s impossible to know where Golden stands on the idea of secession since his staff refused to respond to that very question.

Aroostook County, the northernmost county in Maine, is located along the Canadian border and known, of course, for potatoes.

As of the most recent census, the population was 67,105 souls.